Abstract: This lesson goes along with the Scientific Method unit we teach in the 6th grade. Our major emphasis is on students being able to determine the independent and dependent variables(IV & DV) in an experiment. This tends to be a rather difficult task for some students and we use a variety of methods to help them learn this skill. One thing we do is provide a variety of hypothetical situations/experiments to give the students a large variety of situations that they can use to practice finding the IV and DV. This assessment was one that would turn the roles around. Basically the student needed to come up with a situation of their own that would have an Independent and a dependent variable. They were encouraged to have some fun with this excitement as it could be something associated with something they are interested in. Or they could even make up something a little "silly" if they would like. The main requirement was that it would make for a "fair" experiment and the most important aspects of that is that it have 1 IV and 1 DV. This assignment was graded using the following rubric...
Category
4
3
2
1
Independent Variable
There is a definite IV that is clearly defined
There is only 1 IV and it is basically stated
There could be more than 1 IV and it is not correctly stated
IV is unclear or missing altogether
Dependent Variable
There is a definite DV that is clearly defined
There is only 1 DV and it is basically stated
There could be more than 1 DV and it is not correctly stated
DV is unclear or missing altogether
“Fair” experiment
A great experiment. Could be done and would lead to accurate data
Experiment is good and could be done but details are missing
Experiment is unclear and needs work to make it fair and lead to accurate data
Experiment would not work. It is unclear, and shows little to no effort.
Constants
All necessary constants are listed
Most of the constants are listed. May be missing 1 or 2
Missing many necessary constants(3 or more)
No constants listed
Conclusion
Results are explained with details(data) and includes extra details
Final evaluation of lesson: Overall this lesson had its share of pro's and cons. The main con is the fact that it took a while to grade each one using the rubric. I definitely got better at it as I went along, but with about 90 total students, grading took me nearly 2 hours. As for the pro's, I could easily get an idea of where individual students were as far as their knowledge of the various areas. There are many things I could do from here. I could group students that had difficulty in the same area and could do some reteaching. I could even use these examples, without names, to have them try to make them better. As I'm writing this I'm thinking that if I do this again next year, I may have the students doing some peer grading using the rubric. This would help with my workload and could actually be a benefit to the students in the fact that they can see a few other examples and can see either how it should be done or what things are missing. I really liked this lesson/formative assessment and could see it becoming something I will use every year in this unit. It was a great formative assessment that I could get good data from. It has definitely helped me determine how the students are doing and where I need to go from here.
experiment
Here are some graded student examples
Final evaluation of lesson: Overall this lesson had its share of pro's and cons. The main con is the fact that it took a while to grade each one using the rubric. I definitely got better at it as I went along, but with about 90 total students, grading took me nearly 2 hours. As for the pro's, I could easily get an idea of where individual students were as far as their knowledge of the various areas. There are many things I could do from here. I could group students that had difficulty in the same area and could do some reteaching. I could even use these examples, without names, to have them try to make them better. As I'm writing this I'm thinking that if I do this again next year, I may have the students doing some peer grading using the rubric. This would help with my workload and could actually be a benefit to the students in the fact that they can see a few other examples and can see either how it should be done or what things are missing. I really liked this lesson/formative assessment and could see it becoming something I will use every year in this unit. It was a great formative assessment that I could get good data from. It has definitely helped me determine how the students are doing and where I need to go from here.